Sounds like the bushing that the torgue convertor fits into in the
transmission may be worn.  I had a 1964 Ford Fairlane that did the
exact same thing (long ago....), replacing the bushing fixed the
problem.  (It's not a Vanagon, but I would be surprised it there was
much difference in the principles).

Hope this helps,
Howard
hfleming@moosebird.com

On 2 Apr 99, at 9:41, Tom Rehkugler wrote:

>   I have an 89 Vanagon Carat with AT, 188K miles.  The seal between the
> auto trans and final drive/transaxle been replaced twice previously. Now
> once again I have excess oil level in the transmission.  The trans oil
> dipstick has bubbles . The transaxle was 1 pint low. I topped it off.
>
>                   The first time I replaced the seal between transmission
> and transaxle myself. This lasted 40k miles.  The second time I had it
> done by a local mechanic, thinking that I had done something wrong the
> first time. Now it appears to have failed again. I tried searching the
> archives on this but gave up trying after trying for over an hour.
>
>                   I would appreciate you explanations of how to do this
> repair  and what causes it to fail so often.          TIA
>
>                                      Tom
>                                      Arroyo
> Grande, CA 93420
>
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hfleming@moosebird.com
Alexandria, VA
97 Jetta GL     97 Cabrio
85 Vanagon      84 Westy
84 Vanagon GL (spare parts that turned into a project)
1945 Cletrac model AG
Benjamin Fleming (new kid that is a project....)
Alexandria VA